VINFOOD PRODUCTS CREATES VEGGIE BARS

May 18, 2025 Community Billboard

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS – Elvin K. Poski,20,son of a farmer in Atok and Glency Tino of La Trinidad, show their products during the Benguet Indigenous Youth Arts Guild (BIYAG) marketing activity held recently at Benguet Capitol . Both are winners and grantees of DA- Young Farmer Challenge Program .

Photos by Primo Agatep

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet

Start ‘em young . Innovative ideas make big difference in business. Elvin K. Poski,son of a farmer in Atok, patiently working out his dream to become a successful entrepreneur. At 20, Poski created VinFood Product -nutritious veggie ‘candy’ bars from locally sourced carrots, squash (kalabasa) and sweet potato (camote). VIN stands for Value-Driven Innovation in Nutrition ‘I noticed millions worth of highland vegetables are just going to waste due to over supply and improper farm management, this is the reason why I came up with the idea of creating veggie bars ,’ said Poski in a chance interview during the recent Benguet Indigenous Youth Arts Guild (BIYAG) marketing activity held at Benguet Capitol .

‘Years and even now as i speak, several (Benguet) vegetables are being thrown to waste due to over supply. I realized, why not come up and make something out of it,’ said Poski, an incoming fourth year Business Entrepreneurship student of Benguet State University (BSU).
‘ I observed that the young generation are low in vegetable consumption and our province has over supply of vegetables and the demand
of fresh veggies are low,’ Poski added. Actually , Poski together with Glency Tino of this town are winners and grantees of the Department of Agriculture’s Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program, both in the provincial and regional levels.

CAPITAL
Poski, 6th child of nine children was working on his thesis in 2024 when he begun making veggie bars. He started with a P10k capital from his earning as a farm boy in span of two months in Bokod during semestral breaks. Poski added that he was inspired to create said product
by his teachers in BSU’s Department of Entrepreneurship- College of Home Economics. The young farmer-businessman , who actually
dream of becoming an engineer but due to their family’s economic status instead took another course , sourced his raw materials to local farmers. In fact , at a young age, Poski has been assisting his mother sell vegetables before her death.

He confided that digital marketing and inconsistent production are his challenges as he balance his academic obligation and in sustaining his little business to address his financial needs like meeting boarding house rentals at P1,800 a month. For Glency’s (Tino) part, an IT graduate also of BSU, created Glen-C Food with product lines include strawberry preserve with rhubard/blueberry and beetroot. Like Poski, Glency has been assisting her mother sell strawberry jams for years. In fact, it was her mother (Teresa) who introduced her to jam
making. Both told this writer that they will utilize their grants in buying new materials like oven to sustain their livelihood.

Primo Agatep /ABN